Bologna play Empoli on Saturday night as they both look to continue exceeding expectations in the clash at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara.
The hosts may have lost as many games as bottom club Hellas Verona, nine, but have turned their form around to grab four wins in their last six games and rise to 13th in the Serie A table, five points clear of the relegation zone.
Off the back of key victories over Napoli and away to Genoa, the Rossoblu have benefited from the return to form of forward Mattia Destro in recent weeks alongside the impressive Adam Masina and unlikely goalscoring hero Luca Rossettini. Indeed, Saturday’s game is the start of three home games in their next four fixtures, giving the Rossoblu a genuine chance of opening up a larger gap between themselves and danger.
Making the short trip from Tuscany are Empoli, who sit pretty in ninth after three straight wins which has brought them within touching distance of the Europa League spaces and a win on Saturday will take them sixth. Marco Giampaolo’s slow start to life with the Azzurri is now a distant memory after Empoli kept consecutive clean sheets in beating out-of-form trio Lazio, Verona, and Carpi thanks to the attacking class of Riccardo Saponara, Piotr Zielinski, and veteran Massimo Maccarone.
Unbeaten in four matches away from home, Giampaolo has maintained former Empoli coach Maurizio Sarri’s hard-to-beat nature and can be confident in extending that run against a Bologna side who have picked up just 10 points at home in Sere A this season, the fourth-lowest in Serie A.
These two sides are unfamiliar foes, this being their first meeting in over ten years since Empoli downed the Felsinei 2-0 in 2004, months after Bologna won their last match-up at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara in January of the same year.
Bologna coach Roberto Donadoni will be without Emanuele Giaccherini due to a muscle injury picked up in training and Luca Rizzo after a hamstring complaint. Matteo Monoscu is also unavailable, as is suspended midfielder Amadou Diawara.
The visitors are still without Uros Cosic, Levan Mchedlidze and Rade Krunic while Marcel Buchel is a fresh injury worry.
Form Guide: Bologna (L-L-W-D-W) Empoli (W-W-L-W-W)
Expected Starting XIs:
Bologna: Mirante; Rossettini, Oikonomou, Gastadello, Morleo; Taider, Brienza, Donsah; Mounier, Mbaye, Destro.
Empoli: Skorupski; Laurini, Tonelli, Costa, Rui; Zielinski, Paredes, Diousse; Saponara; Maccarone, Pucciarelli.
Infographic from www.sporticos.com
